Conventional miter saws often provide an arrangement where the miter cut angle can be set at a number of predetermined positions. Typically, conventional miter saws include a stationary base to which a rotatable turntable is mounted, the base providing a plurality of detents that are configured to engage a lever attached to the turntable. The turntable due to the interaction of the lever and the detent on the base, may be set to pre-selected miter cut positions. By way of example, such an arrangement may provide detents at left and right 45 and 22.5-degree locations relative to a center detent that is perpendicular to a stationary fence that is formed or mounted to the base. In addition, some miter saws also provide for adjusting the miter cut position to a location other than the predetermined detent positions. However, due to the interaction between the lever and the detent, many of these prior art arrangements do not allow for rapid or macro adjustment of the miter cut angle over a range of angles in combination with a fine adjustment, or for fine adjustment that is near one of the pre-selected detent positions.
One known conventional miter saw discloses a detent system for macro adjustment of the miter saw to specific miter cut angles at the detent positions. Once positioned in a specific detent, a fine-adjustment mechanism enables fine adjustment of the miter saw within a few degrees of the detent position. However, the range of fine adjustment is not capable of operating over the entire range of miter cut angles, but instead is limited to specific regions within the entire range that are centered about the detents.
While miter saws have been developed which provide for rapid large scale rotation of the turntable relative to the base and also provide some limited fine adjustment relative to the pre-selected angular settings, all known examples of such saws fail to provide rapid large scale rotation of the turntable and fine adjustment over the entire range of miter cut angles, and are relatively complex and are not easily manipulated by a user.